Good fishing on deep redfish

‘We have kept mostly to the deep grounds all this trip and have been searching mainly for deep redfish. There’s a strong demand for this at the moment. Fishing has been good and now we’re expecting to be in port in Reykjavík next Monday,’ said Ævar Jóhannesson, skipper of freezer trawler Örfirisey, when we spoke to him this afternoon.

Örfirisey sailed shortly after the seamen’s strike ended a month ago and has been in once in that time to make a half-landing. When we spoke to Ævar, the total catch for the trip had come to 760 tonnes and he said that he expects the total to reach 800 tonnes before they sail for home.

‘We started the trip on the Eldey Bank soon after the capelin had passed over and that’s where we had some large, good quality cod. After that we moved on to the Skerja Deeps where we started looking for deep redfish. Catches were good and in addition of the redfish, we were seeing silver smelt and some saithe,’ Ævar Jóhannesson said, and when we spoke to him the trawler was in a position deep west of Látrabjarg.

‘The weather picked up down south, so we shifted northwards. As before, we’re still looking out for deep redfish and silver smelt, as well as some Greenland halibut. The fishing for Greenland halibut could have been better, and it looks as if either the migration or the feed have been wanting. We expected more in places such as the Hampidjan Square, but it didn’t work out. There’s a similar situation with fishing for Greenland halibut over a wider area. Höfrungur III started in the Seyðisfjörður Deeps after the strike and did well for the first few hauls. The things slowed down and I gather from the skippers of other trawlers that there isn’t much Greenland halibut to be had off the east coast. Then there’s the north edge, but that´s where conditions have been bad for a while.’

Ævar Jóhannesson said that they can’t complain about the weather.

‘We’ve been mostly on southern grounds and we haven’t lost a single day this trip. That’s pretty rare in February and March,’ he said.